Brookline SPDC Awarded $25,000 Grant

A grant award to Brookline’s South Pittsburgh Development Corporation will help the organization fund a study of the neighborhood’s small business district, and how it can be improved.

The $25,000 grant was awarded by the Design Center of Pittsburgh, which on Tuesday awarded $275,000 to 12 neighborhood revitalization projects.

“SPDC decided on a marketing study on how to market Brookline Boulevard, and attract people to Brookline Boulevard,” said SPDC member Jennifer Grab.

Grab said SPDC hopes the grant will help the neighborhood form solid goals and realistic community projects that will grow the business district and attract both visitors and residents to Brookline.

She and SPDC members Stephanie Miller, Lois McCaffrey and Jen Askey, met in September to discuss and apply for the grant. The grant application was submitted Oct. 19.

Community involvement already is growing in Brookline. In addition to SPDC and the Brookline Chamber of Commerce, Energize Brookline formed earlier this year. Local businesses also have been pushing the program to encourage shopping at Brookline’s small businesses.

The study is coming at a good time, Brookline Chamber members said at Monday’s meeting. The Boulevard Reconstruction Project is scheduled to begin in March. Details of how the marketing study will fit in with the reconstruction project have not been determined.

“It depends on how quickly we move with selecting a professional to work with us,” Grab said. “We hope that it will fit in very well with the Boulevard reconstruction project.”

Grant awards ranged from $10,000 to $50,00. Grants also were awarded to the following organizations:

Economic Development South; Hilltop Alliance; Community Alliance of Spring Garden-East Deutschtown; Point Breeze North Development Corp.; West End Alliance; The Polish Hill Civic Association; Central Northside Neighborhood Council; Troy Hill Citizens; Beltzhoover Civic Association; Focus on Renewal and the Ujamaa Collective.

For the amount given to each of those organizations and the projects the grants will support, see this Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article.

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